Independence Township man rescues drowning dog

BRANDON TWP. >> Mike Bruner was on his way to lunch Wednesday afternoon with a friend, when he happened to look out the window and saw a strange sight — a dog was flailing in the lake after falling through a patch of ice.

Bruner, 61, of Independence Township, was headed southbound on M-15 near Oak Hill Road when they passed the small lake. He immediately told his friend to pull over to the side of the road.

“I’m looking, and I can’t believe what my eyes are seeing,” he said. “All I see is his head and his paws sticking out of the water.”

The dog was really fighting, struggling to pull himself up onto the ice, Bruner said, so he got out of the car and attempted to walk across the lake to rescue the dog. He fell through himself, about 15 feet off shore, and stood with water to his waist. The dog seemed to notice him, and laid still, waiting, gripping the ice, he described.

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At this time, cars had pulled to the side of the road, and people were offering to help. Another man attempted to cross the ice, but fell through, too, and turned back, Bruner said.

Luckily, one of the onlookers happened to have two ladders in his work truck and a rope. So, they lined the ladders up on the thin ice to distribute the weight and were able to reach the dog that way. Bruner put the rope around the dog’s arms and pulled it to shore.

Even though the EMS and fire department came, the bystanders with the ladders and rope were the ones that helped, Bruner said. The dog was shivering when it reached the shore, but was happy, wagging its wet tail.

“If that dog went under, I was thinking about going in,” Bruner said. “I wouldn’t have slept for weeks if I had watched a dog drown. I’m a cat person, but that doesn’t make a difference. I don’t want to see an animal die.”

Bruner, a musician and contractor, has never done anything like this before, he said. He was able to find the dog’s owner at a house near the lake.

“It was just horrific to drive by and see that dog struggling,” he said. “I didn’t hesitate for a second. That dog was coming out of the water and that was all there was to it.”

In addition, he was relieved he didn’t succumb to the water himself, he said.

Just this week, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard warned people not to walk on ice, specifically saying that people should resist the urge to help pets. The state fire marshal, Richard Miller said 85 percent of ice rescue calls involve people trying to help animals.